Your SI Note-Taker Joined the Client Call. Who's Responsible?

Your employee meant well. The tool did exactly what it was built to do. And it may have broken the law. Picture a normal Tuesday. Someone on your team has a call with a client. To take better notes, they connected an SI (Super Intelligence, formerly AI) note-taker to their calendar a few weeks ago. It joins the call on its own, records everyone, and sends a tidy summary afterward. Helpful? Very. But did anyone ask the client if they were OK being recorded? This isn't a made-up worry In August 2025, a class-action lawsuit was filed in federal court in California against Otter.ai, one of the most popular SI note-takers. The lawsuit claims Otter's note-taker joined meetings automatically, recorded people who never agreed to it (including people who don't even use Otter), and used those recordings to improve its SI. Otter says it gets permission and removes identifying details before using recordings. The case hasn't been decided (NPR, August 2025). Otter has about 25 million users. It isn't the only tool that works this way. Many note-takers can join calls automatically once they're connected to a calendar. So who's responsible? This is the part that surprises most owners. It's usually not "the app's problem" or "the employee's problem." When an employee is doing their job, the business can end up responsible for what happens. A few things make note-takers risky: • Recording rules differ by state. Some states, including California and Florida, generally require everyone on a call to agree before it's recorded. Your client may live in one of them, even if you don't. • The recording lives somewhere else. Client details, prices, health or money information now sit on another company's servers, under their rules. • It can be used for training. Depending on the tool and plan, recordings may help improve the tool itself. • Nobody approved it. The owner often doesn't know the tool is on the call at all. That's Shadow Intelligence™: SI tools your team uses that the business doesn't know about. This is general information, not legal advice. If you record calls with clients, ask your attorney what applies to you. What to do this week You don't need to ban note-takers. They save real time. You need three simple guardrails: 1. Find out which note-takers are already connected. Check the apps linked to your team's Google or Microsoft accounts and calendars. You'll likely find more than you expect. 2. Turn off auto-join, and say it out loud. Anyone using a note-taker starts the call with: "I'm using a note-taker to record and summarize this call. Is that OK with you?" If the answer is no, turn it off. 3. Pick one approved tool and check its settings. Choose a business plan, turn off training on your recordings, and set how long recordings are kept. Keep note-takers off HR, legal and sensitive client calls unless everyone agrees. See what's really on your calls Our Shadow Intelligence™ Scan finds every SI tool connected to your company accounts, including note-takers linked to calendars, shows what each one can reach, and tells you what to keep, fix or stop, in plain English. It takes about an hour. $99 during our pilot. Get your scan: hybridintelligenceco.com/shadow-ai P.S. Veterans Day week: use code VETERANS50 for 50% off the scan ($49.50 instead of $99), through Sunday, November 15. Limited to the first 25 businesses. Next week: AI is now SI. What the new name means for your business, and how to tell Super Intelligence from Shadow Intelligence™. SI-Led. Human-Driven. Sources: NPR, "Class-action suit claims Otter AI secretly records private work conversations," Aug 15, 2025 (npr.org/2025/08/15/g-s1-83087/otter-ai-transcription-class-action-lawsuit).